4/4 Wings at Coyotes Game Day Updates

The Red Wings visit the Coyotes tonight, game starts at 10:00 PM EST.


Brunner out- Damien Brunner missed practice yesterday but was said to be "day to day", there wasn't even a "lower, middle, upper" body injury publicized. It was an "undisclosed" injury. Today he said he is bothered by a Hip Flexor, only practiced for 10 minutes, then left the ice. He will not play tonight. He said it's been bothering him for the last couple weeks, but got worse the last couple games. This could help explain his struggle recently. The Hip Flexor muscles are the group of muscles on the inside of your hip and are what allows you to (among other things) pull your knee upwards. Basically, most of the movements you need to be able to do in order to skate, those muscles are responsible for. 

 

DeKeyser out- DeKeyser has been practicing with the team, but won't play tonight. Babcock wants to make sure he's ready before throwing him into a game, especially since he's never player at the NHL level, against NHL competition and with us needing every point we can get right now.

Lashoff in- Lashoff was send down to Grand Rapids after the game last Sunday so that DeKeyser could be added to the roster. Once the roster limit was suspended after the trade deadline yesterday Lashoff was called back up and will play tonight. Which means...

White out- Ian White will once again be a healthy scratch. I"m sure he'll have something to say about it later.

Samuelsson's mysterious injury is a sore pectoral (chest) muscle. He's "day-to-day", but Babcock said it doesn't look like he's playing anytime soon.  

Quincey won't play tonight, but Babcock said he'll play tomorrow night against Colorado. He said his sinuses were still causing him issues as a result of the broken orbital bone. Clearly flying is safe for him, and I'm not sure to what extent/ if at all, the altitude in Colorado will affect him. 

There's been more talk of Todd Bertuzzi recently, but I'm still not expecting him back soon, if at all. It's great to hear that he's making progress, but it sounds like he still has a ways to go. There were a couple tweets that made me smile though. 

Not to get too far ahead, but this longest Todd Bertuzzi has practiced since February. Also, I saw him smile. #RedWings
— Helene St. James (@HeleneStJames) April 3, 2013

Johan Franzen on having Todd Bertuzzi practice again: "He tried to take my spot in front of the net. I told him to beat it." #RedWings
— Helene St. James (@HeleneStJames) April 3, 2013

Not necessarily game related, but this was refreshing to hear from Babcock. 

Babcock " this year has been invigorating for me because there are so many kids and so many projects if that makes any sense"
— Jeff Riger (@riger1984) April 3, 2013

Factoid:

The Wings are up to 203 man games lost this season, and we've only played 36 games. We still lead the league in man games lost. Want to hear something crazy? As of 2 games ago, Boston had lost the fewest man games to injury in the league with... only 22. Detroit has several players who have missed that many or more games on their own. Maybe there's magic healing powers in the water in Boston. 

Detroit vs. Phoenix:

Tonight's game is the 130th all-time meeting between DET and PHX/WPG

This is DET's 65th all-time road game at PHX/WPG

DET's all-time record vs PHX/WPG: 63-40-22-3

DET's all-time road record at PHX/WPG: 28-19-14-2

Last head-to-head game: DET 3, PHX 2 on Mar. 25 at Jobing.com Arena

DET is 6-2-2 in its last 10 regular season games vs PHX

DET is 3-1-1 in its last 5 regular season road games at PHX

DET's PP is 4-21 (19.0%) over the last 5 regular season games vs PHX

DET's PK is 13-16 (81.3%) over the last 5 regular season games vs PHX

J. Franzen has 5 points (3-2-5) over the last 5 games vs PHX

P. Datsyuk has 8 points (1-7-8) over the last 5 games vs PHX

P. Datsyuk has 57 points (14-43-57) in 39 career games vs PHX

H. Zetterberg has 42 points (17-25-42) in 35 career games vs PHX

J. Howard is 7-0-2 with a 2.23 GAA and .928 SV% in 9 career games vs PHX

DET is 6-4-0 vs the Pacific Division this season (14-5-1 in 2011-12)

Here's the expected lineup:

Forwards
Justin Abdelkader	Pavel Datsyuk	Johan Franzen
Valtteri Filppula	Henrik Zetterberg	Daniel Cleary
Drew Miller	Joakim Andersson	Gustav Nyquist
Patrick Eaves	Cory Emmertom	Jordin Tootoo

Defense
Niklas Kronwall	Jonathan Ericsson
Carlo Colaiacovo	Brendan Smith
Jakub Kindl	Brian Lashoff

Goalies

Jimmy Howard

Jonas Gustavsson

Healthy Scratch

Danny Dekeyser

Ian White

Injured

Todd Bertuzzi (Back)

Damien Brunner (Hip Flexor)

Darren Helm (Back)

Mikael Samuelsson (Bruised Pectoral Muscle)

Kyle Quincey (Fractured Cheek)

Let's Go Red Wings!!!

3/25 Wings at Coyotes Game Day Updates

     The Red Wings visit the Phoenix Coyotes, game time 10 PM EST aka, way too late for a hockey game.  

     Detroit prospect, and stud Swedish center Calle Jarnkrok will play 9 games with the Grand Rapids Griffins starting Thursday night. It was announced last week that upon the elimination of his team Brynas of the Swedish Elite League from the playoffs, he would come visit Detroit for a few days and get to know the organization, player, and coaches a little bit. This is an amazing, unexpected opportunity for Jarnkrok to get a taste of North American style hockey, and also for the coaches to watch him in action. As an extra added bonus, I'll be in Grand Rapids to watch him play while he's here and I can't wait. Jarnkrok won't be called up to the Wings, because in order to do so he would have to pass through waivers and he'd be snatched up so fast that time would actually move backwards. 

Bob Duff asked director of player development Jiri Fischer what he thinks of Jarnkrok...

"Calle is the most exciting player in Sweden aged 21 and under. He loves the puck. He's got a ton of personality on the ice and he wants to be a great player."

Another bonus regarding Jarnkrok is his name, which literally translates to "Iron Hook". 

     Damien Brunner will be back in the lineup tonight after being a healthy scratch for the first time in his short NHL career. Brunner is in a bit of a slump and hasn't scored in his last 12 games and has 5 assists in that time period. In the last two games, Babcock moved him down to the third/fourth line and put Miller up on Zetterberg's wing. Interpreting Brunner being a healthy scratch as punishment, or disciplinary in any way is, in my opinion, a big mistake. Having a game off was an opportunity for Brunner to rest a little, watch the game from a different vantage point and take a breather. At the beginning of the season, Brunner said

"Since I got here, I feel like I have no time to study the stats because I’m always sleeping and recovering and eating..."

     The regular NHL season is grueling, but the compressed season is even more intense. Brunner has a lot of learning and adjusting to do in the NHL, and I'm sure he's exhausted and worn out, both mentally and physically. Having a night off may be just what the doctor ordered.

     Brian Lashoff was the latest Red Wing to take a puck to the face last night, but was fortunate to only require two stitches on the bottom of his jaw and is no worse for the wear.

     Gustavsson will be starting tonight, giving Jimmy Howard a breather after playing 5 straight games. Monster hasn't played since the loss in Calgary and the Wings will need him to rebound from a bad game and play strong and confident against Phoenix.
 
     The Wings' power play has been picking up some steam lately. After going their first 10 away games without a power play goal (0/40), they have now scored one in each of the previous five games,  which is the best road pp streak since an 8 game run in 2011. They have scored on 7 of their last 24 chances on the road. Let's hope they keep it up.

     Todd Bertuzzi was on the ice again to skate a little bit before the team practiced this morning, but was frustrated because he said he's making not progress and  has a pinched nerve in his right leg (an extension of his back issues). Because of it, he still can't push off with that leg and has very little strength left in it.

     Colaiacovo has been take off IR but won't play yet. Babcock said he's going to have to show in practice that he's ready to play and is back in game shape and earn his spot in the lineup. 

     Mikael Samuelsson is said to be ready to return as early as Sunday. In order for the Wings to take him off IR, they will have to remove someone from the roster to be at the 23 man roster limit.

     One forward will be scratched so Brunner can return to the lineup. Babcock said he was going to look at the Phoenix lineup before making the decision of who would sit. Since he hasn't announced who it will be yet, I'm going to guess that it will be Eaves or Tootoo, based on nothing other than a gut feeling; however there's also a chance that it's Nyquist. Defense will be the same as Sunday in Anaheim.

A few fun tidbits:

N. Kronwall will skate in his 500th career game tonight at PHX

N. Kronwall is currently T-3rd among NHL D with 22 points (5-17-22) and is T-4th with 17 assists

N. Kronwall has 12 points (4-8-12) over the last 15 games

N. Kronwall has 239 career points and is currently tied with Paul Coffey (239) for 7th overall in team history among D

H. Zetterberg skated in his 700th career game last night at ANA and became just the 19th player in team history to appear in 700 games for DET

H. Zetterberg has 260 career goals and is currently 4 goals behind Nicklas Lidstrom (264) for 9th overall in team history

J. Abdelkader recorded his 1st career NHL hat trick on 3/22 at ANA

J. Abdelkader recorded a career-high 4 points (3-1-4) on 3/22 at ANA

J. Abdelkader has 6 points (5-1-6) and is +5 over the last 4 games

P. Datsyuk recorded his 500th career NHL assist on 3/22 at ANA

P. Datsyuk scored the 250th goal of his NHL career on 3/22 at ANA

P. Datsyuk has 9 points (2-7-9) over the last 7 games

P. Datsyuk currently leads the NHL with 40 takeaways

P. Datsyuk has 751 career points (250-501-751) and is currenlty 7 points behind Norm Ullman (758) for 6th overall in team history

J. Howard has 124 career wins and is currently 4 wins behind Tim Cheveldae (128) for 5th overall in team history

J. Howard has allowed 2 goals or less in each of his last 5 road starts

J. Howard is currently T-4th among NHL goaltenders with 14 wins

J. Kindl leads DET and is T-3rd among all NHL D with a +16 rating

J. Kindl has 3 points (0-3-3) and is +6 over the last 4 games

J. Franzen has 6 points (1-5-6) over the last 5 games

D. Brunner has no goals over his last 12 games played and is -7 over his last 7 games played

DET's PP has scored a goal in 7 consecutive games

DET's PP has goals in 5 straight road games after failing to score over the first 10 road games of the season

16 of 21 DET PP goals this season have come at home (16-73, 21.9% at home; 5-54, 9.3% on the road)

DET is 84-4-4 the last 92 times its scored 4+ goals in a game

DET has lost 186 man games due to injury through 32 games played in 2012-13. In 1994-95 (last 48-game season) DET lost a total of 102 total man games due to injury for the year.

Milestones:

N. Kronwall - 1 GP to 500

J. Tootoo - 2 goals to 50

V. Filppula - 3 points to 250

H. Zetterberg - 5 assists to 400

Here's the projected lineup:

Forwards
Justin Abdelkader	Pavel Datsyuk	Johan Franzen
Valtteri Filppula	Henrik Zetterberg	Damien Brunner
Daniel Cleary	Joakim Andersson	Drew Miller
Gustav Nyquist	Cory Emmertom	Jordin Tootoo/Patrick Eaves

Defense
Niklas Kronwall	Jonathan Ericsson
Brendan Smith	Brian Lashoff
Jakub Kindl	Ian White

Goalies

Jonas Gustavsson

Jimmy Howard

Healthy Scratch

Kent Huskins

Carlo Colaiacovo

Patrick Eaves/Jordin Tootoo/Gustav Nyquist?

Injured

Todd Bertuzzi (Back)

Darren Helm (Back)

Mikael Samuelsson (Finger)

Kyle Quincey (Face/Cheek)